Dip Your Ears: No. 279 (The Sibelius Lure)

Jean Sibelius The Essential Orchestral Favorites Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Leif Segerstam (Ondine, 2014)

Essentials of Sibelius

Reducing “Essential Sibelius” to the Violin Concerto, tone poems, and one Symphony will make hardened Sibelius-fans wince. But then Ondine’s “The Essential Orchestral Favorites” intends not to please the hardened Sibelius-fan, it aims at making hardened Sibelius-fans out of the uninitiated. The 2-CD set does this splendidly: The Violin Concerto is the only Sibelius-work that’s permanently in the repertoire. The Second Symphony, Sibelius’ most conventional, is the ideal first symphonic exposure. And the tone poems, Karelia Suite, and three movements from The Tempest make a perfect Sibelius-starter—especially with Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic, whose soft-lit brawn is dream-boat stuff. Add Sibelius’ own performance of his Andante festivo and a 50-page booklet with oodles of photos of Sibelius, a timeline, and condensed biography. Start here and fall in love.

P.S. If you are ready for a more serious commitment right away, look for The Essential Sibelius on BIS, which will give you absolutely everything you could reasonably want from Sibelius (all the symphonies, tone poems, the concertante pieces, Kullervo, Suites, plenty of choral works, and selected chamber and piano pieces), in reference performances, on 15 discs.

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Dip Your Ears: No. 278 (Freiburgian Schumann Glory)

Robert Schumann Violin Concerto, Piano Trio No.3 Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, Jean Guihen Queyras Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Pablo Heras-Casado (Harmonia Mundi, 2015)

Schumann Glory: Violin Concerto Edition

There are neglected works by great composers, fitfully revived and let go again and rightfully forgotten. Fewer are the works by great composers once ignored and only now rediscovered as masterpieces. Enter Schumann’s Violin Concerto. Clara Schumann, following Joseph Joachim’s advice, suppressed it. Unplayable. Drab. Tiresomely repetitive. Awkward. It’s half a miracle she didn’t burn it. And still performances remain rare. This disc might be the concerto’s best chance to change this! Isabelle Faust’s hushed gentility and her faint, otherworldly touches bring the ears to their knees with the Ghost Variation motif. The following emergence out of this gorgeous, troubled netherworld of Schumann’s mind is all the more invigorating. The Piano Trio is a stupendous bonus; the first in what might be the next touchstone set of three!

(Since then, these artists have completed the trio of concertos coupled with the trio of Piano Trios – and the happy result has been conveniently boxed.) .

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Dip Your Ears: No. 277 (The Freire & Chailly Bumble-Bee-Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Cto. No.5, Piano Sonata op.111 Nelson Freire Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Riccardo Chailly (Decca, 2014)

Bumble-Bee-Beethoven

Nelson Freire is a pianist’s pianist, and a musician’s musician: Nothing is fancy, everything is tasteful, and there’s an innate sense of rightness. His Beethoven recording of the “Emperor” Concerto and the last Piano Sonata, “opus one-eleven”, is a case in melodious point. In the concerto he benefits from a Riccardo Chailly on fire: The low strings hum like bumble-bee war-drones on a fuzzy mission of humanity. The timpani are bone-dry and caught in uncanny detail. It’s a joy how Decca records this extraordinarily well-sounding orchestra. The deal is sweetened by the surprisingly soft-spoken, delicate Sonata opus 111.

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#ClassicalDiscoveries: The Podcast. Episode 008 - Karl Weigl: Viennese Glory and American Obscurity

Welcome to #ClassicalDiscoveries. Here is a little introduction to who we are and what we would like to achive at the first (or rather "double-zeroëth" episode). It still bears mentioning every time, that your comments, criticism, and suggestions are most welcome, of whatever nature they may be. Now here’s Episode 008, where we are talking about Karl Weigl, a definite Surprised-by-Beauty-composer:

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Karl Weigl Sy. No.3, Symphonic Prelude J.Bruhns/Dt.St.Phil.Rheinland-Pfalz Capriccio, 2024